Anelka deserves chance to rise above troubles with France

Tuesday 8 November 2005 17.35 EST
First published on Tuesday 8 November 2005 17.35 EST

When the cars and the fast-food restaurants and the nursery schools started going up in flames in the outer suburbs of Paris last week, I thought of Nicolas Anelka and a trip I took six years ago to a place called Trappes, south of the capital. Looking for Anelka's roots, I talked to a glum policeman who provided me with a description of the surly quartier in which Anelka had grown up. "A lot of kids," he said, "a lot of unemployment, a certain amount of drugs, a lot of angry people, a lot of small crime."

Anelka's family lived in a sector called Plain de Neauphle, a town planner's vision made up of clusters named after icons of French culture - Stendhal, Camus, Gauguin and so on - and designed to represent different architectural philosophies. The Square Van Gogh was where the young Nicolas was raised, in a house on the Rue du Moulin de la Galette, amid a network of streets filled with sandwashed and shuttered two-storey dwellings, intended to create the illusion of rural France in the 19th century.

According to the news, the rioting reached Trappes on Thursday, the day of the announcement of the France squad to play a pair of friendly internationals against Costa Rica in Martinique tomorrow and Germany in Paris on Saturday. The chief talking point was the return of Anelka, three years after he informed the national coach that he would have to get down on his knees and beg if he wanted him to don the blue shirt again.

Jacques Santini, the coach in question, was not long in the job. Raymond Domenech, his successor, seems to possess a more forgiving nature; he also knows Anelka well from the boy's time at Clairefontaine, the national football academy. "Why now? Why not? I have to examine all the possibilities," Domenech said, before praising the player's speed and his ability to hold the ball up and bring other forwards into play.

Anelka's first international setback came as a 19-year-old, when he was excluded from Aimé Jacquet's squad for the 1998 World Cup. He couldn't even bear to watch the victory over Brazil. Restored to the squad, he scored two brilliant goals against England at Wembley in February 1999 but was left on the bench by Roger Lemerre throughout the final of Euro 2000. Omitted by the same coach from the 2002 World Cup, he had his bust-up with Santini, Lemerre's successor, and seemed to have burnt his bridges.

It is something in which he specialises. His departures from Paris St-German (twice), Arsenal and Real Madrid left more than a whiff of sulphur in the air, although Arsenal's fans have nothing other than happy memories of the partnership he enjoyed with Dennis Bergkamp during Arsène Wenger's first double season in 1997-98. He seemed happy to be at Liverpool, where he arrived on loan at Gérard Houllier's invitation in January 2002. Six months later, however, and despite looking like the best partner Michael Owen ever had, he was told there would be no permanent deal. Houllier's decision seemed to be based on a dislike of having to deal with Anelka's brothers, who act as his agents.

When Manchester City proved too modest a club for Anelka's ambitions, he moved in January of this year to Istanbul, where he joined Fenerbahce. After an indifferent start he persuaded the club's president to instruct the coach to pick him at centre-forward rather than on the right wing. With five goals in seven league matches this season, the French striker has overtaken the club's two Brazilian stars in the fans' affections.

For one with a reputation as a troublemaker, Anelka has always seemed to get on well with his team-mates. Thierry Henry is a friend from their days with France's youth team, and Steve McManaman was complimentary about their time together in Real Madrid's 2000 European Cup-winning side. It is easy to imagine that he received a warm welcome when he reported for duty with Les Bleus this week.

So now, at 26, he appears to have been presented with another opportunity to realise the rich promise of his early years. "It's a nice surprise," he said. "I'm not looking for arguments. I just want to play my part and make it to the World Cup, having missed the last two."

It would be fitting if Anelka, whose parents are from Martinique, got a game in Fort-de-France tomorrow. And perhaps this product of the troubled banlieus will take his chance at last.